Shopping Center Flash Mobs: Protest or Alienation?

• In Event: The Re-emergence of Utopias

Abstract

Young underprivileged people have recently participated in flash mob invasions of shopping centers in Brazil and Chile. In invading commodified spaces of consumption, the youth destabilize class boundaries, but they have been accused of frivolity and vandalism. The flash mob manifestations evidence the paradoxical and precarious aspirations of the young poor in Latin America. On the one hand, they are encouraged to be ambitious, and on the other they are shunned by rigid class boundaries. This paper will examine shopping center flash mobs as social manifestations that demonstrate an utopian ideal of equality, and will seek to answer how to negotiate utopian ambitions of class ascension. The music associated with the mob invasions will also be examined.

Author

• Alessandra S Santos, University of British Columbia